Three weeks, three classes and a million ideas. This was the motto with which the PARTe – Art and Territory project began, in Monchique, on March 20, as part of the I Bienal Cultura Educação: RETROVISOR – Uma História do Futuro, a program of the National Arts Plan.
The project takes place in the municipality of Monchique through a partnership between the Municipality and the Municipality of Schools in the municipality, involving students from the 4th grade classes.
In the first week, at Escola Básica do 1º Ciclo de Marmelete, choreographer Alice Duarte challenged students to create a new imaginary between dance and their territory: the Monchique mountains.
The project also aims to make pedestrian routes to particular places in the mountains. In this way, in Marmelete, the place visited was the Hermitage of Santo António.
From the popular legend that tells the appearance of this small chapel, the question arose: is this legend really true?
To find the answer, the students, equipped with research material such as magnifying glasses, walked there to do this survey and returned to the dance studio (school gym) with all the evidence they found.
These conclusions and concerns were transformed, throughout the week, into artistic material and movement, which culminated in a show where the parents, after watching the danced moment, walked and accompanied the children who, magnifying glass in hand, proved the reality of their dreams.
On the 27th of March, a new cycle of artistic creation began, the second week, this time with the 4th grade students of Escola Básica nº 1 de Monchique.
The week began with a walk to Castelo do Alferce, guided by municipal archaeologist Fábio Capela, who did not miss a single detail, from the most technical to the most curious, also mentioning the steep Barranco do Demo and its most famous legend.
Arriving at the classroom, which has now been transformed into a dance studio, an endless list of memories from that morning was recorded and we set out to create.
«Anything can generate movement and this movement associated with creativity and a collective imagination invites dance to enter bodies. And so it was, not only what exists in the territory was danced, but also what is imagined to have existed, exists or may come to exist», explain the promoters.
After the show, the list of memories was shared with the other classes of the school and with parents, which was basically the list of ingredients that dictated the entire creative process of the dance piece.
Tomorrow, Monday, May 15th, choreographer Alice Duarte will begin the third and final week of work with the 4th grade class at Escola Básica nº 2 de Monchique.
There will also be a walk and a guided visit to the Castle of Alferce and it will be, from this relationship with the local heritage, feeling the landscape and its geological and historical context, that another dance show will certainly be born, with other ideas that move in other bodies.
This new show will be presented to the community on the 19th of May, at 11 am, at Parque Escolar de S. Pedro, in Monchique.
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